Friday, September 23, 2011

Ugh. It was awful and had zero function. It took me years of living in our home before I did anything with the space. Years. It was such a tricky spot to problem solve since it opens up right into our living room and there is such a small landing! Anything too bulky and you wouldn't be able to safely move past it. Yet, doing nothing at all would cause for unnecessary piles or an absolutely sparse and lonely space.

We found the shoe storage unit at Ikea and decided the investment was worth every penny since we had gone years without any solution, and wanted something that was going to last through the rest of our time in this house.

We have been loving our new shoe storage since the day it was installed. It's fantastic and has done everything and more to keep our entry uber tidy and organized. And many of you have been asking to take a peek inside that little drawer. Or asking questions about how we organize our entry in general. So I thought I would share some of the updates we have made since I last showed the piece.

First I thought I would show you how the shoe cubbies and drawer open, still leaving plenty of room to navigate around the space:

We keep the adult shoes on top, kiddos on the bottom:

On the top of the shelf, I keep a cup full of markers so the kid's can feel free to color whenever the mood strikes. And a small bowl for us to toss our change. And a $1 melamine tray for our keys.

I used my Silhouette to create fun "His" and "Hers" labels on the tray with vinyl.

Inside the drawer, I also used my Silhouette to cut a paw print and place it on the inside of a shallow white bowl:

That's our way of labeling where the dog leash goes!

That adorable yellow drawer liner was actually already part of the drawer unit when we purchased it! Such a win, one less step for me to do!

We use the drawer to hold the dog leash, extra flashlights, sunglasses, my coupon envelope and small bins of chalk and batteries.

Next to the shoe stand, I popped in my new bucket I found at the Junk Bonanza, to hold the kiddo's umbrellas:

All of the changes we have been making to get our entry in organized shape have really worked well for us! We really couldn't be happier with how far it has come!

Anyone else have awesome small entry way storage solutions that have worked for you?

Seriously jen I think you have such a wonderful talent of making things beautiful!

I have a plan for our VERY small front entry that I can't wait to share with you. I'm hoping to complete it before Halloween (or sooner).

I get giddy each day reading your blog posts. I wish I had more energy right now to do-over my whole house. We purchased it 2 years ago but have had 2 babies in those two years, so besides the nursery it is 'untouched'. I'm so excited to spend our long, cold Canadian winter working on decorating and organizing my home. Thank you for the constant inspiration

My husband and I are driving the 3 hrs to Charlotte, NC to go to Ikea and to buy this baby! We have many more things on our list but this is priority, so happy to hear you are thrilled with it--ever since I laid my eyes on this in their catalog, I knew I had to have it!

Could you please let me know how many inches high the legs on the Hemnes Shoe Storage unit are? I'm trying to determine if it will fit over our baseboard heating unit. But I can't find any answers or get help at the Ikea web site. Thank you!

OMG... I so need that shoe cabinet. I have them in a cute basket right now but I spend about 10 minutes digging through my and my son's shoes looking for the pair. Your entry way looks great, well organized.

I have to tell you, after your first post, I bought myself the same shelf and we finally got it installed in our new entry. It really is nice looking and corrals all our shoes perfectly. We don't have a single closet on the main floor so it's a life saver. I'll be posting soon (hopefully) and I'll make sure to link back to you as my inspiration for that.

I love this! We don't have a mudroom in our new house so I've been playing with a few ideas. Where do you keep your purse and things like your boys' backpacks? That's the stuff that we ahve by the door now that I'm struggling with.

I love that the shoe cabinet has a drawer to hold the small things like keys, sunglasses ... because our shoe cabinet which is quite similar doesn't have a drawer and we can't resist to just throw all those things on top of the cabinet which looks messy all the time. I will change that. Soon!Jule

I have loved that shoe storage organizer from ikea ever since you first posted about it. It has been on my wish list ever since! I love that you show us all your large, small, and in between organizing solutions. They are so helpful and I love it! I never thought I would love organizing so much until I found your blog. (that sounds incredibly cheesy, but it's true!) Also, I have that same coupon organizer, it's great. I've been couponing for over a year now and it's the best thing I've found for organizing my coupons that I plan on using as I go to the stores. Thanks for everything! Also, where did you get that fabulous $1 teal melamine tray?!?!

Our Mud Room is the the next room on my To Do list. While I love this shoe holder, our biggest organizational issue are bags (purse, briefcases, shopping bags, lunch bags etc.) We just walk in and dump! I try really hard to put my shoes back in my bedroom closet (and hubby really only owns 2 pairs of shoes) so shoes don't really collect in the Mud Room.

I just made us a "memo station" on the wall next to our desk, and we have a hook for the boys' coats and bookbags, as well as a bin underneath for shoes. I would LOVE this piece, but unfortunately our little space is about 4 inches too short, and I would have to remove the coat rack.

I recently did my entryway, we just moved in the end of June. I spray painted a bookshelf and added baskets for shoes and my hubby built a sweet coat rack/shelf thing I found on pinterest for the front entryway coats. I'm turning our front closet into our newest cloffice so we needed a place for coats. Love that IKEA cabinet, been eyeing it up for a while now. I might need to buy it for the mudroom! Thanks for inspiring and sharing!

just one quick question ... do you find the shoe cabinet smells like, well, 'boy feet' when you open it? my hubby's shoes are overpowering and often keep them in the (attached) garage! (on a cute little shelf, of course!)

Does the shoe storage thing mount to your wall? I noticed that it only has legs in the front! I would love one of those, I'm totally itching to make my first trip to Ikea next time we're in the Cities with extra time to spare!

There are actually not any smells in there so far that I have noticed, and I was worried about that considering we store shoes in there for four guys. The insides are well ventilated and there is no backing to it other than the wall, so I think that helps as well!

I love this! Ideas like this make me look forward to buying a home. By the time we find one, I'll have my whole decor and organization plan mapped out, thanks to you! - I'm a fairly new reader but I love, love, love your blog!

wow! I didn't know Ikea made those, I'm pretty sure it would change my life ;) shoes are EVERYWHERE around here. Thanks for all the work you put in on your blog! I love being inspired almost daily to organize a little better !

It looks fabulous! Definitely thinking I need one for our entry way. Currently we have a bench with a big basket underneath for shoes, and hooks and a shelf above. My boys' backpacks hang on the hooks, but we could really use some enclosed storage. LOVE!

I've been on the hunt for a console table for our entry, but i'm pretty sure this would be waaaaay better since you have to step over about 8 pairs of shoes to get into my house at any given time! Thanks so much, now if i could stop reading your blog and actually organize something around here. :-)

My absolute best small entry way storage solution is hooks! Such a simple thing, I can't believe I didn't think of it sooner. The kids' backpacks were all over the place, so I put up a row of hooks, low at their level. It looked better than I thought it would, and works sooo well. My next issue is the shoes....thanks for the tip!

I have the exact same entry - including the window, white door and flooring. I've been wanting that Ikea piece for awhile and I think it will do a great job at storing our shoes and such. (The only coat closet is at the back of the house. Bizarre.) I loved seeing what all was in your drawers!

You read my mind with this post. I was just thinking of buying two of those shoe units for my extra bedroom to hide my shoes on my next trip to Ikea. I love your entry way. Now you have me thinking maybe I should redo mine. I could put the shoe units everywhere in my house...Ha! :)Sue

Great entryway! I have a Hemnes dresser in my bedroom and love it. My entryway is pretty much non-existent, so I added a boot tray and coat hooks to create a little bit of storage. http://www.diynewlyweds.com/2011/09/small-entryway-makeover.html

I'm headed to Ikea's site right now!!! I am also trying to find ideas for our entryway...I just put up a few command hooks for my daughter's bookbag and her jackets and my son's jackets at their height. I think this shoe organizer is a better solution than I was going to do...thanks so much for your blogs! they are beyond inspiring!!

We have a small entry, buy I wouldn't call it awesome. I used to like it more, but someone broke into our house and we had to replace our beautiful front door with a window, with a steel solid door. It's pretty, but with no front windows in the living room it's just so dark. So I'm thinking about what to do. I would love it to be useful (Which it's never been) and pretty (which it used to be). Thanks for the inspiration!

I have this weird obsession with entryways. I think they are awesome and I can't wait to have one to decorate. But, I was always worried about if we find a house with a totally small entryway. Oh, the horror! You have just calmed all my fears! You made a small space so beautiful and functional. I love the way you attend to even the smallest of details like putting the doggy paw on the leash bowl and the his and hers on the key tray. I LOVE it all. Great job :)

Your entryway is beautiful! I love the shoe cabinet and I'm thinking that I might get one for our back entryway (no closets/mudroom in our old house, unfortunately...) but I'm wondering what you do with boots - winter boots and rain boots. Do they fit in there? Can the cabinet hold up to some moisture? I'm a fellow Wisconsinite, and since we have are *several* months of snow, slush, mud, etc. it seems like we have boots (sometimes several pairs of wet, yucky ones) clogging up our entryway all year. I'm wondering how you deal with that issue in your house.

Nice, love your entryway! Where oh where did you get that coupon holder? I love my coupon binder, but do not use it as much because I hate lugging it around. Oh and if anyone lives close to an IKEA check out the 'scratch/dent' area, I've seen the shoe storage cabinets there before! :)

I just stumbled across your blog while browsing around on Pinterest. Love your ideas and your willingness to share. Next stop....IKEA online and to Home Depot for green paint! Next stop....more browsing on Jen's blogs for more super ideas.

Hi Jen, I have a question about this Ikea piece. Is it possible to NOT install the divider that creates to levels of shoes? I'm thinking how this could be used (with one or two others) for toy storage or maybe in a open place in the kitchen for food? What do you think?Camille

I adore this. We recently bought and installed the shorter version of this (with 4 shoe compartments but no small drawer) and you're making me wish we bought this one instead! We had a similar entryway problem and this has helped tremendously. Love your blog, keep up the great work!

I love this! Since our carpets were abused from the previous owners, we didn't care before about people wearing shoes around the house. But now with our son getting ready to crawl, we are a "no shoes please" family.

Oh I am just loving this! We have an entry way in need of some revamping to make better use of the space. Our shoes are everywhere! I've been eyeing these at IKEA and love seeing how you put it to use in your entry.

If you find you have a moment (I know they are hard to come by), would you mind measuring the height of the shoe area? My husband is wondering if his size 13s will fit in there...and I didn't see those measurements on the IKEA sight. I totally understand if this is not something you are able to get to, but just in case...thought I'd ask!

Thanks so much for your inspiration!Blessings,Hollyhttp://hallelujahsbyholly.blogspot.com

I LOOOOOOVE thi!!!! I repurposed a coffee table into a bench with a slide out drawer BUT the shoes just don't fit HA! so this will be FANTASTIC!! and work fabukoussssssly!!! I am doing a happy dance in my head hahaha. THANKS!!!!

Great job, Jen! Where did you get the cute little white trays and bowl that keep the drawer so well organized? At Target with the teal one? I have tons of drawer space but they are all shallow so I haven't been able to organize things properly. Thanks!

I have the same piece from Ikea except I have it in my tiny apartment kitchen. I needed extra food storage and it has been a lifesaver. I have decorative but functional containers on top and inside I keep whatever food stuff fits best. With such a small space there is generally not room in one cabinet to keep all of the same type of supplies together. It's good to know that when I move to a new place I can use it for an entry way too! Thanks for sharing!

i love your entry way. and i love your coupon envelope...i've always wanted to get into using coupons. i have friends who say they save TONS of money using coupons. only thing is, i am not quite organized enough to use them :( i will sometimes cut them out, then lose them. or find them later, only to realize they expired! anyway, any chance you might consider doing a post on how to get organized using coupons and such? thanks!!!

Hi Ladies - I was just at Ikea today 10/22, and they still had them in their stores and display, however, I noticed this morning they weren't on the website any longer. Maybe try calling your nearest Ikea to see if they still have any left in stock before they are discontinued permanently. Best of luck! xoxo!

This is just what I have been in search of and I had a panic attack when it was no longer on line! I called the store and they didn't know what I was talking about when I tried to explain shoe organization, but then I sent an email with the photo in and received a response with the name and article number (HEMNES shoe cabinet - 402-169-08). If you call there is an automated line, enter in the item number and you can find out availability. I went last night and there were plenty of the white and dark brown. I'm so excited to start organizing - you have inspired me, thank you! For everyone still looking, quick go get one, they're still available!

I love your entry way, I have been trying to figure out what to do with ours for awhile now. This is a definite must get. I just looked at the IKEA website and it's back on there. The brown-black color will go in our hallway perfectly.

While my husband and I were looking at Homes For Sale In Rockville MD, we came across the perfect place we can now call our first house. Your posts have been providing me such inspiration on how to turn our house into a home. Thanks again and keep up the good work.

Love it! So pretty and functional! How do you keep the bowls and trays inside the drawer from sliding around as you open and close the drawer? The only way I can figure to keep those in place is to have them occupy the entire space so they can't move, but whenever I have just a few inside of a drawer, they always end up very messy because of all of the sliding. Love your blog! Thanks for the tips/inspiration!sj_unk@yahoo.com

Hi Jen! By any chance did you consider distressing this? Or perhaps you have a suggestion on how to go about it. I think this storage unit is a perfect solution to my entry way shoe pile. I just thought a more rustic look might be kind of cool. Although I'm not sure that I have the guts to mess around with it after paying $130. HMMMM....??? Thanks! Carrie

I too would love to know the leg height/clearance! We have another style of shoe cabinet from Ikea, but the baseboards in our new house are too tall for it and it doesn't sit flush against the wall. (Ikea is a ferry ride away from us, so popping in to measure for myself isn't an option unfortunately.)

So, I've been to the IKEA website and apparently you can't purchase this cabinet online. The closet IKEA store is 300 miles away from me...do you happen to know of any other places that sell it? It's EXACTLY what I've been looking for!! I've never seen anything even close to this before...

I am looking to get two of these, one for shoes in our entry and one for toys in our living room. The walls I want to put them on have baseboard heaters, so I am wondering how high up the legs go. I want to make sure they clear the heaters so there is no obstruction! If these fit, these will be the answer to my prayers for both rooms!

I love this idea! We also have a small entrance way and this will fit perfectly. We currently have an ugly shoe rack, and I would love to be able to hide the shoes and have somewhere to put keys etc. Will definitely have to plan to buy one! Thank you for such beautiful ideas!

Love this! I love the white color but am wondering if it is easily cleaned since dirty shoes will be stored inside. Have you had any trouble keeping the outside of it clean and free of smudges? Just trying to decide what finish would be best in my home. Thanks!

Hi Jen. This is wonderful. I'm moving into a home that opens into the family room and this would be great to store everything. Do you know the name of the series at Ikea? I would love to buy this. Thanks!

I have just purchased this cabinet at IKEA and am using it for shoes and bags. Our entry opens into our dining room and I've grown sick of looking at everything....The top pullout drawer holds a good sized mom purse and the tote I carry to work, plus reusable shopping bags. The bottom has room for a lot of my daughter's extra bags (everything but the backpack we use every day) and her shoes. It has really cleaned up the visual clutter in the whole space. There is also room in the back of the drawer to run cords through so the top drawer has become our "charging station"......Win, Win and worth every single penny I spent on it!

I love the shoe storage cabinet (the Hermes line is awesome, we have 2 of the dressers from this collection) but not sure it would fit into our even tinier entry way. But I am curious where you found the little melamine tray for $1??

Jen, I wanted to say thank you again for the beautiful pictures you have posted and for the fast response to my paint color question. My wonderful husband is home today (on his day off) painting our walls with Grape Leaves. I think the color will be the perfect thing for our long Alaskan winters! Please keep sharing your amazing ideas - you are truly an inspiration.

I see you have an outlet behind. I would add a charging station to the top or inside the drawer, cord stapled along the bag and inside top. Definitely putting this in our entry which is similarly designed.

Use a circular drill hole attachment to drill holes in the back and the drawer. I did that with an Ikea Pax wardrobe to hold my bedroom TV along with other things. If you already did that and it still didn't work, I will have to work hard to make this idea happen.

I love Ikea, however I have never seen this unit. I love that it has a top draw. I am not finding it thou. Do you know if they still have it? or maybe the item number? Beautiful job. Thanks for sharing.

This may be practical in most houses, but I still dont think it would solve my problem of muddy size 12 and 15 boots and work wear and my shoes and my sons shoes and all the coats in the winter months. but i love what u do though it is great!

Thanks Jen! I saw this post a long time ago, so today when my husband said "I need something near the front door to keep my shoes on" I immediately remembered your post and pulled up the pictures to show him. My normally cheap (er, frugal) hubby took one look at the Ikea shoe cabinet and said "order it now". SCORE!

Really odd question. I would like to buy this cabinet. Problem: we live 12+ hours from Ikea. I really need to know how far apart the mounting screws are for mounting it to the wall. We have a wall toilet and I need to make sure we are not drilling into it. If you could let me know that would make my life so much easier. Thank you so much in advance.

Hi! Love the way you organized everything in the entryway! I'm in desperate need of a shoe organizer like this but I have a lot of high heels. Have you tried storing high heels in this shoe cabinet? Do they fit?

I absolutely love this cabinet! I drool (literally) every time I walk into Ikea. I measured my space and was so disappointed when I got to the store and measure the actual cabinet. Because of the sizing/location of some permanent fixtures at our back door area, it won't fit. I so wish Ikea offered it with just one shoe pullout and the drawer so that it was shorter. :-(

I LOVE this idea. Our entrance way is a constant source of annoyance for me but I haven't been able to find a solution that I like so have just left it as is. Until now that is! Thanks for the great idea. LOVE THIS!!!!

Jennifer, thank you for sharing this! I have the "large men's shoe" issue as well. Woudl you mind terribly just sending the measurement of how long a shoe will fit? Ikea has not replied to my question.

We have had this same unit for just over a year now. I love it. But the bottom show drawer sticks out about 3 inches when closed. It falls off it's hinge. I wish I could find a way to fix it because I love this item so much.

Lots of questions regarding whether this will fit big mens shoes. The cabinet DOES fit my husband's size 13W running shoes. Of course, one pair of those monsters takes up about as much space as 3 pairs of my little flats, but if you're primary concern is whether they will fit at all, the answer is YES!

I know this is over two years old, but I have a quick question, can large shoes fit here? My husband wears size 13's and we're trying to figure out if his shoes would fit in here? His shoes are about 1 foot long, so we need that length to fit that. Would his shoes fit there?

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